The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption based its conclusion on the notion that the tickets, for dozens of flights between 2008 and 2011, were secured through Virant's wife and a friend of the family.

But now Dnevnik released email correspondence between Virant and former sales director of Adria Airways Tomaž Kostanjšek showing that Virant personally ordered the tickets.

Dnevnik says it has proof Kostanjšek, a former school mate of Virant's, had officially approved more than 20 tickets for Virant and his family members for flights to Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, Skopje and Sarajevo.

The business class tickets typically cost Virant EUR 150 return, several times below market price, and came from a contingent of tickets reserved for Adria staff and ticket agents.

According to Dnevnik, this shows Virant lied in claiming for over a year that he had not known about the discounts since his wife had been arranging the tickets.

It also casts doubt on the findings of the corruption watchdog, which accepted Virant's claim that the family secured the tickets not with his intervention but through his wife's connections.

The corruption watchdog said today that it did not have the documents obtained by Dnevnik and that it could not conduct an interview with Kostanjšek, because he did not want to talk to them.

The commission could also not force him to talk to the investigators, as its powers only apply to public sector employees, the press release said.

Virant's ostensible ignorance of the ticket purchases was the key argument for the anti-graft commission's conclusion that Virant did not secure the tickets by virtue of his position as minister.

While Virant told the STA that "the story about the plane tickets is closed for me", the opposition Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi) demanded today that he resign.

The coalition Social Democrats (SD) MP Matjaž Han meanwhile expects that Virant will "act in line with high moral standards" if it turns out that the paper reported the truth.

The head of coalition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), Karl Erjavec, meanwhile called on Virant to provide explanations. He is convinced that the matter will come up in the parliamentary debate on the ouster motion filed by the SDS in February.

Virant said today that he would consider taking Dnevnik to court over the latest report. "I've explained all the facts in detail to the Commission. It is clear from its report that the blame for the disorganised system of decisions on discounts at Adria Airways cannot be pinned on the hundreds of customers who received the discounts."